A few posts ago I was talking about the opportunities and threats of “Social Media”. Since then I have seen a few more examples.

So firstly treat what you read with a pinch of salt (as you should anything you read unless you know you can trust the source). This (on the right) is a post that has been going around on Facebook. Now while I sympathise with the sentiments it is neither a “Fact” nor “Legal” and I am sure that no-one would be taken in by this. But a slightly less outlandish statement and a gullible person . . . well who knows. Continue reading “The perils of the internet and e-mail”→

Last week I had my fourth visit to A&E. My first was 20 or so years ago when I thought I had twisted my ankle. Initially I didn’t do anything about it but when it continued to be painful and my foot was pretty shades of blue and yellow I went along to A&E and said “I think I have broken my ankle“. They looked at it, said “Yes you probably have” and sent me on my way – it was too late for any intervention and taking an x-ray would have been a waste of time. My second visit two years ago is documented in Beetroot is not my colour and my third in A new word.

Toni and Carol completed the Great South Run in the very commendable time of 1 hr 37minutes. Here are before and after pictures – can you work out which is which?

Unfortunately we were unable to be there to support them due to a plumbing problem but Carol reported in her inimitable way “What an awesome day!! Thank you Toni for being my motivator when the pain kicked in! The crowd support the entire route was amazing, much needed jelly babies in the last 5 miles, bagpipes, drumming bands, rock choir keeping the momentum going, whenever I was flagging someone would shout encouragement (took me by surprise as I forgot I had my name on my front!) and kids high fiving the whole way round. Running past HMS Victory was pretty awesome too. Thank you Portsmouth – give me a few weeks to forget the pain then I will probably sign up again!”

And with gift aid they have raised just £15 shy of £1,200 for Cancer Research UK. Great job. Should anyone have found that missing £15 down the back of the sofa then please visit Toni’s justgiving page.

In two weeks time Toni and Carol should be recovering after a 10 mile run on the south coast. Yesterday for the first time they ran just over 10 miles so are feeling confident about the Great South Run (providing Carol’s knee doesn’t kill her and Toni hasn’t succumbed to hypothermia). It will be shorter runs now for the next couple of weeks. I am always impressed by people who can run longer distances whether it is 10k, 10m or longer – my longest run was twice round the sewage farm when I was at school (why they picked that route I am not sure but it did encourage us to not hang around) although I would happily walk much further than that. Apart from the challenge of competing in an event rather longer than their usual runs (even though it is obstacle free) they are raising money for Cancer Research UK and are within spitting distance of their target. Continue reading “Two weeks to go”→

In the past I have mentioned my hypothetical three-legged stool – the three key numbers that I need to keep an eye on. Well two of the three are heading in the right direction and one is drifting a little in the wrong direction. My platelets (the tiny blood cells that help stop bleeding) have been counted. They are at 150 compared to the 10 they had dropped to two years ago, and are knocking on the door of being normal (150+). Great. The next leg, my HbA1c figure (I will explain later) was the lowest it has been for about four years at 46mmol/mol. When I went to the doctors with a cough and came out with diabetes my HbA1c reading was 67. Since then it has been running at an acceptable 45-49 until it went up to the high 60’s when I was on steroids whilst my platelets were being encouraged to climb out of the ditch. So far so good. Continue reading “My three-legged stool 18 months on”→

. . . life before social media? I was surprised recently to get a “reminder” from Facebook that showed that I had been using it for ten years! If you had asked me I would probably have said ‘about five years’ although if I thought about it I would have realised it was longer, but ten years!!! Continue reading “Do you remember . . .”→

(although luminous yellow are pretty good as well)

It was three in the morning and I was standing on the corner of a street in a hi-viz jacket with a cat rubbing itself against my legs. Further down the road I could just see Liz’s flashing bunny ears and in the distance I could see a snake of twinkling lights coming towards us. As they got closer I could see that they were all wearing pink tee-shirts. When they reached me I directed them round the corner and onward. It was the annual Midnight Walk for the Florence Nightingale Hospice. Most were walking steadily and chatting away although a couple of times someone not in a pink teeshirt weaved their way along the road and staggered off into the distance. Continue reading “Pink teeshirts are best”→